


One Sees

by BuckinghamAlice



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Superman - All Media Types
Genre: AU, First Kiss, Fluff, Forests, Gen, In which other people have great ideas and I merely translate them, M/M, and everything is superbat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-07
Updated: 2014-02-07
Packaged: 2018-01-11 12:08:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1172892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuckinghamAlice/pseuds/BuckinghamAlice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Siblings Diana and Clark must live in the forest to keep from harming anyone with their Medusa stare.  Years pass, and they grow used to their lonely life... that is, until a blind man shows up and changes the way they see everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Sees

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the following prompt by [yaoidesuyo](http://yaoidesuyo.tumblr.com/)
> 
> "AU where Clark and Diana are siblings who have Medusa's stare and have to live in a forest, but Bruce is their friend because he's blind... And the villagers never knew that, as it never actually occurred to them that a blind man could sneak out"
> 
> Special super thanks to my pal/writing buddy/all-around inspiration [loud-mathematics-sparkyboom](http://loud-mathematics-sparkyboom.tumblr.com/) who gave me practically the entire story line here when I was struggling to find it.

Diana had thought, back when she realized what she had become and had vowed never to let… what happened… happen again and ran away from all she knew, that she would have been happy to have someone beside her.  But the day she heard the footsteps coming toward her, rustling through the fallen leaves and padding against the cold ground, she wasn’t prepared for what greeted her.  She immediately closed her eyes when she heard someone approaching, but as the body came nearer, she heard cries that sounded… familiar.  The sniffling she heard, she’d have recognized anywhere.

“Clark?” she asked, voice suddenly hoarse.  “Baby brother?”

“Diana?” he sniffled. 

She opened her eyes just a crack and saw him stumbling forward, his own eyes slammed shut and his cheeks tear stained.  “Come here,” she said comfortingly, moving toward him.

He ran forward, still groping around him blindly as he cried, “It happened to me too.  I’m like you now.” 

The person she had most wanted to protect when she left, the person she had missed most over the previous months, was standing with her now, but her heart ached at the sight of him.  He was practically a child, and now his life was doomed to be… what her life was.  She sighed sadly and moved to her little brother.  She went down on one knee before him and took his hands, white from being clenched miserably in fists, in hers and said, “Clark, look at me.”

His eyes opened slowly and bottom lip trembled.  “The baker,” he spurted miserably.  “I went to get bread and I looked at him… I didn’t know, Diana, I swear I didn’t.”

She nodded.  “I know, little brother.  I know.”

“Just like a statue,” he said shaking his head, as if that could clear the memory. 

Diana held tighter to his hands.  “It will _never_ happen again.  And we will be together and take care of one another.  Don’t be sad anymore.  It was _not_ your fault, you hear me?”

He gave her hand a grateful squeeze and nodded vigorously, so she smiled at him and said, “Good.”

*****

Some months later, Diana was out on one of her regular chores: checking the traps she had set around the forest.  When she lived by herself, she contented herself on a diet of roots and berries she gathered and the occasional, very rare, rabbit she was able to catch (because she was always strong and fast, but rabbits tended to be even faster).  But now that Clark was with her, and she promised herself that he’d not face anymore hardship than he already had, she’d taught herself to hunt properly so there was always enough to eat.  While she was checking the traps, Clark worked diligently at building the little lean-to Diana had cobbled together into a little cottage.  The work was already building muscle on his formerly lean frame, and Diana joked that in a few years, he might be half as big as she was. 

While she was out checking the traps on this particular day, she heard a footfall approaching.  Hiding had become instinct for her, so she ducked behind a clump of trees and waited until she saw a forester stalking through the clearing.  The man saw the trap (in which a nice, fat opossum had been caught) and quickly glanced around him before taking Diana’s prize and stalking away.  It took everything she had not to throw a rock at the man or to run after him.  He was a royal forester, but this forest was not royal land.  He had no authority here and that opossum was hers.  But she didn’t want to start trouble, couldn’t afford to draw attention to herself and Clark.  And she would never, no matter how angry she was, risk turning anyone else to stone. 

Once she was sure that the forester was far enough away that he wouldn’t hear her stirring she got up and walked in the opposite direction, toward the stream.  They could at least have fish for dinner.

*****

The day that Diana saw a forester stealing from her trap was just the first sign of trouble.  Poverty took over the village.  Even the royalty had fallen on hard times, and the king had raised taxes to the point that no one, not even the wealthiest citizens of the village, could afford them.  Two years passed, and more and more people began to sneak into the forest to try and hunt and gather roots and berries because they couldn’t afford to buy food.  Diana and Clark were forced to spend more time than ever in their recently completed cottage to hide from the frequent interlopers.  Clark took up whittling and Diana paced around, longing to be out of doors.  They were lonely, but thankful for one another.

Another two years passed, and a sickness spread through the village like wildfire.  The living conditions had become so unsustainable that the apothecaries and healers had all left the dying village.  Half the population was wiped out in a month’s time.  For the first time, the brother and sister were grateful for their solitary life in their forest cottage.  Again, people stopped spending time in the forest, but the siblings wished it hadn’t happened that way.

Clark was cautious, always more so than his sister, but especially after their time in the forest.  Diana knew he was still terrified that someone would catch one of them off guard and they’d forget to avert their eyes, and this… curse… would claim another victim.  He had admitted to her that he was worried that they’d be discovered.  Though he tired of their life in the forest, he would never go back to the village.  Diana, on the other hand, found it difficult to stay away.  She’d steal glances when she was out checking the traps and watch from a distance, but she never went all the way back.  That was a risk even she wasn’t brave (or foolhardy) enough to take.

*****

One day, Diana mentioned that she missed music.  Over the next few days, Clark was secretive and hid what he was whittling from her.  With great pleasure, he presented her, after some days, a small wooden flute that he had painstakingly carved.

“Oh, Clark, this is beautiful,” Diana breathed.  She blew a few notes that came out rather flat and then laughed.  “Oh, even that horrid tune sounds like beautiful music to me now.  Thank you, brother.”

Clark smiled.  “It was no trouble.  I just wanted you to be happy again.”  Then, a little bit sadder, he added, “And I thought that if you missed music half as much as I missed reading and I could do something about it… well, I wouldn’t have been a very good brother if I didn’t try.”

Diana looked at her little brother, who was no longer the scrawny boy that had run into the forest scared and crying, and sighed.  She’d have given anything to be able to get him at least one book.  And it was worth sneaking to the village and taking the risk – to make him happy.  But he wouldn’t approve, and he wouldn’t be able to read and enjoy the book without being hit with a fresh wave of worry every time his fingers graced the cover.  Five years she and Clark had lived alone in the forest now, and this life never seemed any less lonely.  But she played her flute, practiced it every day, and soon their cottage was filled with gentle and lovely music.  They weren’t any less lonely, but with the music, they could imagine.

*****

One day while Diana was out hunting, she was startled by the sudden presence of… a man.  A strange, silent man she had never seen before and who seemed to show up quite out of nowhere.  Quickly she averted her eyes and said, “I must warn you that you would be better off turning and running now.”  She came closer but the man didn’t acknowledge her. 

“I said to leave right now,” she warned.  “Nothing good will come of you being around here.”  Still, the man maintained his silence.  “Hey, can’t you hear?”  She came up to him and was reaching to tap him, in case he was deaf and actually _couldn’t_ hear her, but before her hand was even close to him, he reached up and grabbed her wrist so quickly she gasped and tried to jump back.

“You scared my prey,” the man said quietly.

Diana twisted.  “Let me go!”  He turned her loose, and she was just about to protest that _she_ didn’t see anything when she heard the faintest rustling of leaves and caught a flash of motion out the corner of her eye.

“Bobcat,” the man said.  He turned to face her just then and he moved so quickly that she didn’t even have time to close her eyes again.  But because her eyes _were_ open, she saw that the man’s were clouded and milky grey.  She looked down and saw a stick in his hand.

“Oh, you’re blind!” she blurted.

He sighed and turned to leave, and she said, “Wait!  That… came out wrong.  I was… surprised.”

“Surprised a blind man can hunt?” he asked.  “Or surprised that I was willing to come into the forest said to be inhabited by two runaways with the stare of Medusa?”

Diana took a step back.  “Who told you something as ridiculous as that?”

“I’m not afraid of you,” he went on calmly.  “The legend says you could turn me into stone if I look into your eyes… and I’ve not looked into anyone’s eyes in some time.”

“Do you believe every story you hear?” she asked.  “Even the ones as wild as that?”

He shrugged and turned away.  “I believe this one is true or you wouldn’t live in the forest like this.”

Diana watched silently as he left.  She didn’t know what to make of someone who voluntarily came around her and wasn’t afraid.  But then again the blind man had no reason to be afraid… not of her and certainly not of Clark. 

But as the blind man was the first stranger she had seen in some time, she found herself wondering why he had shown up and if he’d be back.  And then, oddly enough, her thoughts turned to her little brother and she wondered what the blind man would think of him… and what he would think of the blind man.  She was, in fact, still wondering all of those things as she played her flute that evening after dinner.

“You seem distracted,” Clark observed.  “Is something wrong?”

Diana shook her head.  “No.  I just… there was a man in the forest today.”

“A man?” Clark reiterated.  Worry suddenly crossing his face, he asked, “Did something… happen?”

“No, everything was fine,” she reassured.  “He was blind.  We can’t hurt him.”

“Are you sure about that?” he asked.

Diana sighed.  “Yes.  And it seemed that he could take care of himself.  He was hunting.”

“I see,” Clark replied with a nod.  He went silent for some time, and Diana could tell he was thinking, but she dare not ask about what.   Eventually he added, “Well, that’s fine.  But we should still be careful.”

*****

The next time Diana saw the blind man was about two weeks later.  She was deep in the forest, picking Clark’s favorite wild apples to surprise him, when without so much as a sound, the blind man appeared on the other side of the tree.

“You’re very sneaky,” she commented.

Diana saw a smile flicker briefly across his mouth before he snorted and turned away.  “There is a negative connotation there, wouldn’t you say?  I prefer the term ‘stealthy.’”

“I _meant_ for there to be a negative connotation,” she replied easily.  “Would you like an apple?”

The blind man glanced up at her, and for just a second, she felt like he could see her plain as day.  But she shook herself, because that thought was ridiculous.  She watched the blind man curiously as he used his staff to gave the tree a tap in just the right spot to make a handful of apples fall to the ground.  He picked one up and took a bite.  “I can get my own,” he replied with a shrug.  “You’re welcome to the others.”  He turned to walk away.

“You never told me your name,” Diana called after him.

“No, I didn’t,” he replied as he disappeared into the trees.

*****

It was nearly a month before the blind man reappeared, but this time, Diana and Clark were together when they saw him.  They were out near the stream and Clark was cleaning the fish he had caught that morning while Diana sat nearby and played her flute.  Diana didn’t hear him approach over the sound of her music, but Clark did, and once he was aware of the visitor, he turned quickly and started to leave.

But the blind man just came close enough to sit on the other side of Clark, didn’t react to the music stopping or Clark’s movements.  He was totally unfazed by anything the siblings did.

“Don’t worry,” Diana reassured her brother.  “This is the man I told you about.”  Then, glancing around her brother, who was still quite tense and watching the blind man nervously, she asked, “How did you know where to find me?”

“I wasn’t trying to find you,” he replied.  “But all anyone would have to do is just follow the sound of the music, and here you are.”

Clark turned to him with a raised eyebrow.

“This is my brother,” Diana said.  “That’s who you’re sitting beside.”

The blind man nodded.  “I know.”

“How could you know?” she asked.

“It couldn’t have been anyone else,” the man replied.

Diana shrugged and began to play again and Clark watched the blind man out the corner of his eye as he returned to cleaning the fish.  The blind man sat quietly and just listened to the sounds around him.  Eventually, he turned to Clark and said, “That would go faster if you held the knife lower.  You’re angling it too much.”

Clark furrowed his brows and looked at the blind man with a heavy sigh.  Diana stopped playing again and rushed to say, “You know, my brother made this flute for me.  Carved it himself.”

The blind man nodded.  “Proves he knows how to use a knife.”

“Don’t remember asking your opinion,” Clark replied.

The blind man snorted a little laugh.  “So you aren’t mute… just rude.”

“We should go,” Clark said, turning back to his sister briefly.  He didn’t wait for a response before getting up and walking away.

*****

Diana saw the blind man again the very next day.  She had climbed one of her favorite trees and was watching below when she saw him coming.  She got a bit of a mischievous grin as she decided to jump down and surprise him.  Maybe it was a little bit mean, but after all the times he had surprised her, she felt he might have it coming.

She sprung lithely to the ground, expecting the blind man to at least give a start, but he didn’t.  He didn’t so much as flinch.  “Hello,” he said easily.

She wrinkled her nose.  “Hi.”  Then, coming a step closer, she added, “You’re very observant of things for someone who can’t see.”

“I know that you are taller than I am because I hear exactly how far apart your footsteps are, which tells me that your legs are longer than mine,” he began.  “I know that you are alone today because you never would have done that in front of your brother… he wouldn’t approve.  I know that the two of you are very close and that you are older because of how tenderly you speak to and about him.”

Diana cocked her head.  She hadn’t mentioned her brother but the blind man had brought him up.  “He isn’t here,” she said.

“I know that,” the blind man said after a momentary pause.  Without any more hesitation, he turned and left.

Later that evening, as Clark prepared their dinner, Diana casually began, “I saw the blind man again today.”

“Did you?” Clark asked, and Diana could tell he was trying to sound like he wasn’t interested in what she was saying.

“I did,” she confirmed.  Then, raising an eyebrow, she added, “He asked about you.”  It wasn’t _exactly_ true, but they _had_ discussed Clark… so it wasn’t _exactly_ a lie, either.

Clark paused.  “Did he?”

She watched her brother’s face as she reached for her flute.  “It’s nice having someone else to talk to, isn’t it?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Clark replied.  And the subject was dropped.

*****

Three more times over the next week Diana and Clark saw the blind man.  Diana wondered if the sudden increase in his visits to the forest had anything to do with meeting her brother… and she also wondered if Clark’s sudden reluctance to let her explore on her own had any connection with meeting the blind man.  But she knew that if she asked, she wouldn’t get an honest answer.  Not from either of them, now that she thought about it.

Clark and the blind man always kept their careful distance from one another and almost never talked directly to one another, yet they always focused on one another whenever they were together.

It was curious, that much was certain.

*****

After the first week, the blind man came to the forest just about every day.  Diana found herself enjoying his company and even more than that, she enjoyed the way Clark seemed almost fascinated by the man.  He’d often watch the man when he didn’t think Diana was looking.  The thought that they might have found an unlikely friend delighted her, but to think that there was the possibility that the blind man could be a sort of… special companion to her brother, who was more sensitive and probably more in need of companionship than she, was especially exciting. 

But the blind man and her brother were still wary of one another.  She almost began to think that her excitement over this new friend might have been premature until one day when Clark had unexpectedly commented, “We still don’t know your name.”

The blind man had nodded.  “And I never asked yours.”

“Well, I’m Clark and my sister is Diana,” he had said.  Diana watched him curiously, head cocked.

“Good to know,” the blind man replied.

Clark sighed.  “And what’s _your_ name?  I’m getting tired of not having anything to call you.”

The blind man paused for a moment before saying, “Bruce.  My name is Bruce.”

Diana raised a brow at that.  “You never told me your name when _I_ wanted to know.”

“You never asked,” Bruce replied, shrugging slightly.  And if she wasn’t mistaken, she saw him and Clark exchange small, brief smiles… but they looked genuine.

*****

By the time Diana and Clark had known Bruce for about six months, they were both done being surprised by him popping up out of nowhere and moving silently and seeming to not even be the least bit hindered by the fact that he couldn’t see.  And if she had thought her brother found him fascinating before, she was sure now, with the way he looked at the man.  And Bruce always seemed to pop up only when Clark was around, always stood close to him, and he offered most of his advice to Clark.

She and Bruce eventually became hunting partners.  It was difficult at first, because he did things differently than she did.  His way was slow and meticulous and quiet, but it was successful.  When he pulled out his knife, he never missed.  And if she was being honest, she had to admit, she liked hunting with him.  He had become a very good companion.  Her favorite nights were now the ones where he would occasionally come to the cottage and eat dinner with her and Clark, and the two of them would talk while she played her flute.

One day, when Bruce arrived, he was carrying something in one arm that he was keeping hidden under his cloak.  He eventually took the garment off and put it on the ground to cover whatever he had been hiding when he approached.  When he joined Diana, she glanced at the item with a raised brow and asked, “What’s that you have over there?”

Bruce hesitated.  “Just… something I brought from the village.”  Diana wondered what it could be, but she didn’t suppose she’d get any more information by pressing.  Bruce kept his secrets well.

When they were done with the day’s work and went home, Clark was sitting outside the cottage when they approached.  She shook her head at the fact that he was playing with a raccoon.  He was always doing things like that… and he’d get attached and then be cross with her if his little _friends_ ended up in one of her traps.  For someone who was in fact tough and strong enough to live this life and knew better than to be sentimental about such things, he got himself into a lot of that kind of trouble.  But she supposed that was what made him who he was.

The raccoon scurried when it heard new people approaching and Clark tsked.

“Friend of yours?” Bruce asked.

“Don’t encourage him,” Diana chimed.

Clark smiled and shook his head.  “I like to talk to the animals.  And until I tell you that they’ve started talking back, you needn’t worry.”

Bruce snorted a laugh at that and Diana rolled her eyes.  But then she watched quietly as Bruce cleared his throat and reached for the item he had wrapped in his cloak.  “Clark, I… I have something you might like.”  He finally revealed that the item he had been carrying was a small, leather bound book.

Clark reached for it eagerly.  “ _Grimms’ Fairytales_!  Bruce, I… this is…”

Bruce shook his head.  “I remembered that you said you liked reading.  Books are rather hard to come by these days, so there wasn’t much selection…”

“This is perfect,” Clark cut in.  “You have no idea what this means to me.  I can’t imagine how we’ll pay you back.”

Bruce waved his hand.  “Read me _Snow White and Rose-Red_ and we’ll call it even.  That was always my favorite.”

Clark smiled broadly and flipped to the story in question.

*****

One day, about a year after the first time Diana met Bruce, she was out checking her traps when she heard voices in the forest.  It was her brother and Bruce, and they were having a very earnest conversation. She was surprised, because when last she saw Clark, he was chopping firewood (as the weather was starting to get a bit cold), and she hadn’t seen Bruce since the day before.  So, curiosity getting the better oh her, she crept a little closer to see what the two of them were up to.

“You rely too much on what you see,” Bruce was saying.

Clark had a scarf tied around his eyes and was wielding Bruce’s staff.  “That’s easy for you to say.”

“You have to pay attention to everything around you, and not just when you’re hunting,” Bruce said.  “People in the village talk about you and Diana as if you’re something to be feared… with that kind of attitude being prevalent, you need to be able to protect yourself.”

“I can,” Clark insisted.  Bruce made a move in his direction and he blocked him with the staff.  “I’m fast and strong… just like my sister.”

“Yes, you are,” Bruce agreed.  “But none of that will do you any good if you have your eyes closed out of necessity when you haven’t trained yourself to rely on your other senses.”

Clark stood still.  “Your hearing is heightened.  How can I train myself to hear better?”

Bruce came a few steps closer and spoke softly.  “You stretch yourself.  Make yourself pay attention to things you never thought mattered.  You’d be surprised what a difference it makes.”

Diana backed away slowly, rather than interrupt the training session.  She smiled to herself as she thought that she seemed to be getting her wish… they were friends.

*****

Diana had quickly found that though she had wanted to live completely off of what was in the forest, that was easier said than done.  The forest didn’t provide grains or salt or fabric.  Going back to the village didn’t seem the wisest option, but she had found that if she walked in the direction of the stream where Clark did the fishing and walked about six miles south, she found the route to the next village.  Several times a year, traders set up shop there, and if she wore a balaclava and was very, very careful not to look down into the trader’s eyes, she could trade the furs she had collected for the things they needed.  It was an all afternoon trip, and Clark always stayed behind.

When she came back from her latest trip, she expected to find her brother around the cottage, or maybe training with Bruce, but as she approached the stream, she found them sitting together, very close together at that, and Clark had his eyes closed.

“I can hardly hear anything over the stream,” he commented.

“Try harder,” Bruce replied gently.

Clark shook his head.  “But I like the sound of the stream.  It’s peaceful.”

Bruce nodded.  “I suppose it is.”

Clark opened his eyes and tilted his head a bit.  “Were you… were you always blind, or did something happen?  If you don’t mind me asking.”

“There was a sickness that spread through the village several years ago,” Bruce said.  “People I had known all my life crumpled around me and were dead within days.  If the fever got you, you were likely to be dead in twelve to twenty-four hours.  My own family, gone before my very eyes.”  He paused.  “I was one of the first to get the sickness and one of the few to live to tell about it.  But…I paid a price.”

Clark looked down at his hands.  “I’m sorry that happened to you.”

Bruce shrugged and remained silent.  For a while, Clark was silent too, and Diana was just about to make her presence known when Clark suddenly asked, “Do you ever wonder what I look like?”

Bruce looked plenty surprised, for probably the first time since Diana had known him.  “Why should I wonder a thing like that?” he asked.

Clark shrugged and smiled.  “I don’t know.  I’d wonder if I didn’t know what you looked like.”

“I’ve imagined you,” Bruce replied.  “I know that you’re tall and broad shouldered… and when I fill in the blanks, I imagine you with dark hair and freckles.”

“Close,” Clark replied.  “No freckles.”  Then he asked, “Do you imagine that I’m… good looking?”

Bruce looked down.  “I don’t really know…”

Clark reached for Bruce’s hands and gently grabbed them.  From where Diana was, she could see him immediately tense, but when Clark placed Bruce’s hands on his face, Bruce visibly relaxed.  “Here,” Clark said.  “So you can know.”

Bruce’s hands gently touched Clark’s face as he quietly said, “You feel like you look… nice.”  He then removed his hands and let them drop to where Clark’s hands were resting.  Bruce seemed quite cautious as he stroked the back of Clark’s hand with his thumb.  He then grasped Clark’s hands and brought them to his own face.  “Now, close your eyes and try to use your other senses.”

Clark smiled and touched Bruce gently.  “I’m not sure what this is going to tell me… I already know that you’re handsome.”

“Am I?” Bruce asked.

Clark blushed.  “You must know.”

“I do now,” Bruce breathed.  And then, quick as anything, he leaned in and gave Clark a quick little peck, right on the lips.  Diana realized she was holding her breath in suspense as she waited to see how her brother would react, but she was surprised as anything when she saw him pull Bruce back to him and kiss him passionately.

At that she walked away, because she had snooped long enough.  When Clark and Bruce came back to the cottage, they attempted discretion, they really did, but the amount of private smiles they exchanged, the increased tenderness, and the rapt way Bruce listened as Clark read aloud from his fairytale book would have given them away even if Diana hadn’t seen them with her own eyes.

From then on, Bruce was nearly a permanent fixture at the cottage, and neither sibling really minded that at all.

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be a drabble. I missed the mark a bit.


End file.
